In the World - Philadelphia Inquirer

Sudan forces attack S. Sudan

BENTIU, South Sudan - Sudanese armed forces launched an attack more than six miles inside South Sudan's border, an official said Sunday, days after the south announced it was pulling its troops from a disputed border town to avoid all-out war between the two countries.

Ground troops from Sudan launched three waves of attacks, said Maj. Gen. Mac Paul, deputy director of military intelligence for South Sudan.

He said it was the first major engagement between the two armies since South Sudan announced it would pull out from the contested border town of Heglig.

Paul said the attack was part of a "continuous provocation" from Sudan. Sudan's military spokesman and other government officials were not immediately available to comment on the attack. - AP

Leaders of Iraq, Iran set for talks

TEHRAN, Iran - Iraq's prime minister traveled to Tehran on Sunday for top-level talks, underlining the close ties between governments of the two countries.

Nouri al-Maliki met Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the beginning of his two-day official visit.

Ahmadinejad praised Maliki, saying the Iraqi prime minister is working for reconstruction and progress in his war-battered country.

"If Tehran and Baghdad are powerful, then there will be no place for the presence of enemies of nations in this region, including the U.S. and the Zionist regime," the official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as telling Maliki.

Maliki is also expected to meet Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Among topics for discussion is Iran's nuclear program. Iraq will host the next round of nuclear talks between Iran and the six world powers in Baghdad May 23. - AP

U.S. envoy hails Yemen's fight

SAN'A, Yemen - The U.S. ambassador to Yemen said Sunday that a recent military shake-up has improved the fight against al-Qaeda, which has taken advantage of internal turmoil to overrun parts of the country's south.

Ambassador Gerald Feierstein also told reporters in the capital, San'a, that Washington is concerned about Yemeni officials who resist reforms ordered by the new president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi. He replaced longtime ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh after a year of demonstrations and unrest.

Yemen's army has stepped up the offensive against al-Qaeda's dangerous Yemen branch in the south after Hadi made the announcements that replaced Saleh loyalists with new officials. Feierstein praised the new leadership. - AP

Elsewhere:

A woman died Sunday of injuries a day after two trains collided in Amsterdam - a crash a top rail official called one of the worst train disasters in the Netherlands' recent history. Scores were injured, and the city's mayor said 16 remained hospitalized Sunday afternoon.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was moved back to prison Sunday after refusing hospital treatment from state doctors. She is serving a seven-year term on charges of abuse of office in a case the West deems politically motivated.